Unit 1 — Elements of Dance and Kinesthetic Movement
Description
This unit establishes the foundational elements of dance through experiential learning. Students develop control in balance, weight shift, transition, and flow while exploring symmetrical and asymmetrical shapes. They learn conditioning principles including strength, flexibility, endurance, and alignment, and understand how bodily skills relate to time, space, and energy. Students practice exercises and combinations that build awareness and coordination, explore improvisational structures such as Follow the Changing Leader and Echoing, and choreograph short dances based on specific body parts. The unit emphasizes how movement quality and speed affect communication, and students reflect on their own learning and performance through self-assessment and peer feedback.
Essential Questions
- Why did we make these movement and spatial choices?
- How do dancers make movement and spatial choices?
- What are the impacts of movement quality and speed?
- How can the elements of dance be used to express content, emotions, and personal expression?
Learning Objectives
- Exhibit control in balance and demonstrate weight shift, transition, and flow
- Distinguish symmetrical and asymmetrical shapes in choreography
- Understand conditioning principles and their relationship to time, space, and energy
- Explore positive and negative space, range, levels, directions, and pathways
- Practice and perform exercises and combinations that build strength and coordination
- Explore improvisational structures such as Follow the Changing Leader and Echoing
- Choreograph short dances based on one body part including shapes, pathways, and locomotor steps
- Use discipline-specific arts terminology to categorize and describe dance works
Supplemental Resources
- Markers and chart paper for documenting choreographic ideas and warm-up exercises
- Index cards with dance terminology and vocabulary lists for reference during lessons
- Whiteboards for students to sketch movement pathways and spatial patterns
- Graphic organizers for categorizing elements of dance and analyzing movement sequences
- Printed images and photographs of different dance styles and body shapes for visual reference
Dance - Creating
Dance - Performing
Dance - Responding
Students determine central ideas and themes in texts, integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media formats, participate in collaborative discussions with peers, and produce clear writing to explain concepts and ideas related to dance history and culture.
Students explore how culture is expressed through and influenced by the behavior of people, examine individuality and cultural diversity through dramatic play and movement, and investigate how nations have their own customs and practices reflected in dance forms.
Formative Assessments
- Reflection and discussion after improvisation dances about how movement felt
- KWL Chart to identify prior knowledge of cultural dance
- Self-assessment giving students opportunity to evaluate quality of their own learning and performance with respect to curricular objectives
- Peer critique using rubrics, checklists, and protocols with constructive feedback phrases
- Hand signals to indicate understanding of specific concepts, principles, or processes
Summative Assessment
Performance rubrics evaluating student dances on technical proficiency, use of elements of dance, and principles of design. Written or drawn work documenting choreographic process using technology when appropriate. Evaluation of informal in-class performances and video evidence using observation, discussions, drawings, and simple student-created rubrics.
Benchmark Assessment
A structured observation task in which students perform a short combination showing control of balance, one weight shift, and either a symmetrical or asymmetrical shape. The teacher uses a checklist to measure whether students can apply conditioning principles and demonstrate clear transitions and flow in their movement sequence.
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding of balance, weight shift, and shapes through adapted movement tasks with physical supports or modified ranges of motion as needed. Verbal descriptions or drawings of movement sequences may replace or supplement live performance, and peer or teacher observation with simplified checklists may be used in place of self-assessment rubrics.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students may benefit from visual supports such as posted anchor charts showing the elements of dance (body, space, time, energy) with simple illustrations to reference during movement exploration and choreography tasks. Directions for multi-step combinations or improvisational structures should be broken into small sequential steps, delivered both orally and through visual demonstration, so students can process and respond at their own pace. When self-assessment or peer feedback is required, provide simplified checklists or picture-supported response formats that allow students to communicate observations without relying heavily on written output. Extended time and additional practice repetitions should be offered for movement sequences requiring balance, coordination, or spatial awareness.
Section 504
Students should be provided preferential placement in the movement space to allow clear sightlines to teacher demonstrations and to minimize distraction during improvisation and combination practice. Additional processing time between instructions and the start of movement tasks supports students who need a moment to organize their physical response. When transitions between activity structures occur, a brief advance warning helps students shift focus smoothly from one element of the lesson to the next.
ELL / MLL
Visual demonstration should serve as the primary mode of instruction throughout this unit, as movement-based learning naturally reduces the language barrier; teachers should consistently model shapes, levels, directions, and pathways before asking students to replicate or respond. Key dance vocabulary such as symmetry, asymmetry, pathway, and flow should be introduced with physical demonstrations and illustrated word walls so students can connect terms to bodily experience rather than text alone. Pairing students strategically during improvisational structures like Follow the Changing Leader and Echoing allows MLL students to participate fully and build vocabulary in context through movement rather than verbal explanation.
At Risk (RTI)
Entry points into movement exploration should connect to students' natural physical play and prior body knowledge, framing balance, weight shift, and shape-making as extensions of familiar movement rather than new or difficult skills. Reducing the complexity of combinations and choreographic tasks — for example, beginning with a single body part or one element of dance at a time — allows students to experience early success and build confidence before layering additional components. Frequent check-ins and positive, specific feedback during and after movement tasks help students recognize their own growth and stay engaged throughout the unit.
Gifted & Talented
Students who demonstrate quick mastery of foundational movement elements should be invited to explore more complex choreographic problems, such as combining multiple elements of dance simultaneously or experimenting with how changing time and energy qualities shifts the communicative intent of the same movement phrase. Encouraging these students to take on leadership roles within improvisational structures — extending the Follow the Changing Leader format to include self-designed rules or constraints — deepens their understanding of choreographic craft. Gifted students may also be challenged to articulate their choreographic choices using discipline-specific arts terminology in more sophisticated ways, connecting movement decisions to expressive or aesthetic purpose.